Located on the alternative aspect of False Bay, discovering Gordon’s Bay when travelling from Cape City is straightforward sufficient because of the large white ‘GB’ anchor and letters image emblazoned on the slopes of the Hottentots Holland Mountains that type the backdrop of our village. Whereas the massive Steenbras Dam sitting on the high of that exact same mountain is just about invisible if you’re not flying overhead, the large hunk of crimson brick infrastructure jutting out subsequent to the GB image is nonetheless very noticeable certainly. Its identify? The Steenbras Water Therapy Plant.
Constructed in the course of the Second World Battle (a troublesome process given the acute war-time scarcity of labour), the Steenbras Water Therapy Plant was the third and costliest of the preliminary three water filtration crops erected by the Metropolis of Cape City in an effort to attempt to resolve the issue of pipe corrosion wrought by the Cape’s pure water provides. Now whereas the dam and the plant itself is clearly closed off to the general public at massive, the street main as much as Steenbras WTP has gifted us an outstanding vantage level within the type of the Steenbras Lookout Level, a spot that delivers some completely implausible views over False Bay and the Helderberg area of Gordon’s Bay, Strand and Somerset West.
Up till just a few years in the past, the lookout level featured a slender path that allowed you to stroll across the nook and get a a lot better view of Gordon’s Bay, and should you circled, the water remedy plant itself, however sadly this walkway has since been fenced off – an actual pity however most likely for the most effective given the comparatively unsafe nature of it within the first place. No matter this although, the Steenbras Lookout Level stays as in style as ever, and if in case you have the inclination and a while to kill (like me – Chantelle and the ladies didn’t need to depart the home on this specific day) then there are at all times the varied paths criss-crossing down from the parking space to stumble alongside in order for you somewhat extra ‘stroll’ out of your go to to a lookout level.
That mentioned, you’ll word that the image above isn’t fairly from the identical place as the primary two. Having fortunately scrambled up and down the paths on the Steenbras Lookout Level, I subsequent determined to poke my head in on the entrance to the Danie Miller Climbing Path, located on the opposite a part of the Gordon’s Bay mountainside suburb. Additionally a part of the Steenbras Nature Reserve, the Danie Miller path (beforehand often called the Mayor’s Stroll), is a contour path hike alongside the Hottentots Holland Mountains that takes you from one finish of Gordon’s Bay to the opposite, all the way in which as much as the white-painted stones that types the aforementioned ‘GB’ anchor and letters image above the city. I solely snuffled round for a really small little bit of the path (initially laid out by former city mayor Danie Miller), however having now had a style of what’s on supply, I reckon that I would like to provide the total path a go before later!
Bonus: For a more in-depth take a look at the Steenbras Dam Water Therapy Plant and the way it capabilities as a crucial a part of the Metropolis of Cape City’s water infrastructure, here’s a video put collectively by the CapeTalk crew following a go to to the plant by radio presenter Kieno Kammies:
Plus, as at all times, a map:
Associated Hyperlink: Gordon’s Bay
